Use Artisan Spirit Shimmer Echoes to brighten up a rainy day

Yesterday, we finished making cute umbrellas for our quilted wall hanging. Now we’re moving on to making raindrops, using the same technique of fusing the shapes onto the quilt top, and using fabrics from the Northcott’s Artisan Spirit Shimmer Echoes collection!

Instructions

For the raindrops, apply the HEATNBOND Lite Iron-On Adhesive Sheets to the back of the three blue fabrics. Using the raindrop template, trace the raindrops on the fabrics. I had a total of 20 raindrops. Remember to place the templates so the drops of the fabric are vertical. Cut out the raindrops.

Arrange the raindrops on the remaining 3 blocks and press.

Arrange the blocks in a pleasing manner.

Cut eight 1½” strips from the dark gray for the sashing and the border, watching the direction of the fabric. Cut six 1½” x 8½” rectangles from the long strip. Sew on the right-hand side of the first two blocks in each row.

Sew the 3 blocks together in each row.  Press. Sew the sashing between the rows. When you sew the rows together, pin and then flip back to make sure the blocks and sashing line up with the next row.

Using the 1½” strips, sew borders on the top and bottom, and down the sides. Press.

If you want to put a few raindrops on your umbrella blocks, now is the time.

If you want to secure the shapes in place, do a machine applique stitch or a decorative stitch around the shapes.

Quilt and bind. For the quilting, I chose to simulate the rain and machine quilted vertical wavy lines with a blue thread.

This project was a real splash! Using Northcott’s Artisan Spirit Shimmer Echoes fabrics really brightened up my fun rainy day quilt!